Monthly Archives: October 2008

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Course marshal Ed Schmitz of Novato dons a Halloween costume while watchig play on the second green of Sonoma Golf Club during the second round of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship golf tournament in Sonoma today.

The 2008 edition of the Best American Sports Writing has been out a few weeks, in paperback at most bookstores and online (linked here), edited by Bill Nack.

Buy it for $14, or pick it up in the store to review some of the better scribing you may have missed during 2007 (that’s how it works) and if you have ideas for anything you’ve seen in 2008, you’ve got a couple of months to submit it to the series editor, Glenn Stout … it’s all explained in the book.

One of the stories noticed for its quality content in this book comes from L.A. Times columnist T.J. Simers, a piece he did in January (now nearly two years ago) entitled “Family Carries On After Tragic Day” (linked here).

The numbers are in from the ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 coverage of last weekend’s Breeders’ Cup from Santa Anita and the crunchers have proclaimed: 19.7 million viewers, up 62 percent from last year (12.3 million), which is a household rating of 0.7 for nine hours on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 24-25. Last year’s rating: 0.6.

For Los Angeles, it was a 0.8 mark on the ESPN coverage (of five races Saturday after 12:30 p.m., including the Classic). It didn’t make it into the top 5, led by Louisville at 3.0.
L.A. did a 1.9 for the ABC coverage (four races, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) and was the third-best market, behind Las Vegas (2.1) and Oklahoma City (2.0).

And the customary press-release quotes of praise from all involved:

==”With the expanded two-day format and the addition of ABC, we achieved one of this year’s main objectives — to showcase the World Championships to a significantly larger audience,” said Greg Avioli, Breeders’ Cup President and CEO. “We thank our partners at ESPN for a tremendous production and outstanding promotion leading up to the event.”

==”These ‘poll’ numbers mean The Breeders’ Cup on ESPN and ABC is the big winner in 2008, “said Len DeLuca, Senior Vice president of programming and acquisitions, ESPN. “We’ll continue to work with Greg Avioli’s team to grow horse racing’s biggest two days.”

Petros Papadakis’ appearance tonight on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period” won’t be until midway through the hour-long presentation, and doesn’t hit the L.A. TV market until 12:30 a.m. (early Saturday morning). But it’s still in prime time for any Halloween party gathering and worth seeking out.

The former USC fullback will be outfitted quite differently than what you may have seen him on “Jim Rome Is Burning” (today, ESPN, at 1:30 p.m.), the “BCS Breakdown” show (FSN West, today at 6 p.m.), the “BCS Ratings Show” (Sunday, FSN West, 8 p.m), the “Lexus Gauntlet” show (Monday, FSN Prime Ticket, 9 p.m.) or “The Challenge” with Fred Roggin (Sunday, 8 p.m., KNBC Channel 4).

How he missed an opportunity to be on “Gary, Unmarried” defies explanation. With or without the pearl necklace.

Before he took the stage Wednesday at the Fox Studio in Century City to tape his segment with Chris Rose (as Bret Michaels, above), Papadakis went through some proper primping for his role (as captured by Daily News staff photographer John McCoy):

You can go to today’s media column (linked here), then come back and catch up on more notes and things that were left out in the wake of Petros Papadakis’ whirlwind, wigged-out workweek … that’s what we’d subscribe to.

— More photos are coming, by the way. The one above ran with today’s story: That’s (believe it or not) Michael Strahan (dressed as Terry Bradshaw, which is sure to make its way to the “NFL on Fox” studio show this Sunday), Chris Rose (as Bret Michaels), Eddie George (as King Tut), Papadakis (take a guess) and — the wildcard — Eric Byrnes, the Arizona D’backs outfielder, as The Joker. Not pictured, for some reason: John Salley (who tried to pull off Chef from “South Park” but really looked like a skinny ex-NBA player with a white chefs outfit on) and Charissa Thompson (as … we’re not sure… she had a green fairy outfit on … you’ll have to watch tonight’s episode of the “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” at 12:30 a.m. early Saturday, to figure it all out).

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